bronchiolitis w/ asthmatic tendencies.

b-e-a-g-g-r-e-s-s-i-v-e! good thing my cheerleading skills are still intact...i'm sure there are some bloggies reading right now that are excited too ;) anyway, doctor visit #17 rolled around this aM. gus had not been showing any significant improvements since sunday's changed meds. so, yesterday was a very stressful, frustrating one, as i watched his chest for "abnormal" retractions. questioning if they were present or not. i held off until today to see our regular doctor, but it's stressful to have to make that decision to seek attention or not!

{on a side note here...when i say "abnormal retractions", i'm referring to abnormal for him. gus is one of those kids that has a floating sternum & the area where the sternum is, sucks deeper into the chest. this means that he has a retraction happening during his normal breathing regardless of illness or struggling to breathe. so, it takes a little closer look to notice if there are troublesome retractions present. and that is why it's difficult to judge that at times}.

after doc had a chance to listen & look at him this morning, he concluded that he's not moving to get that junk out of his lungs as he should be considering the treatments he's been getting. his lungs sounded tight & he was wheezy in his breathing. we would hope he would be a lot better at this stage. so...doc decided to go really aggressive with some outpatient treatments for the next 48 hours & check back in friday morning so he could take a listen again to his breathing.

he's not struggling to take breathes, it's just not a clear {quiet} breath in & out {if that makes sense}. our regimen for the next 2 days now includes a steroid inhalation treatment w/ our regular nebulizer medicine, an oral steroid & the antibiotic. nebulizer treatments need to be done every 2 to 3 hours. they will take twice as long with twice the medicine, so, if you're wondering what i'm doing through the day...you could bet the farm i'm giving a neb treatment. come friday, i hope there are finally improvements...b/c i have a sneaking suspicion that our only option at that point will be back to children's hospital. so that's the latest update. we will barrel through the next 48 hours & lots of caffeine & hopefully see some positive results. please stay tuned. we continue to appreciate your support & inquiries - thanks!

this is 'turtle man'...he is our best friend & he visits us quite often through the day now.